Desktop Publishing Photo Finish

FrameMaker, PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and Ventura Publisher are all contending for the lead, but PageMaker wins by a nose

David Seachrist

It's hard to tell the leading desktop publishing (DTP) programs apart. All provide page-layout, word processing, typography, and I/O tools galore, and they tend to copy each other's features. The differences are mostly in the details.

NSTL evaluated Windows DTP packages characterized by broad feature sets and midrange prices. We did not include more costly and specialized publishing software, such a s Interleaf Publisher. Excluded as well were entry-level products, such as Microsoft Publisher.

The programs retain vestiges of their original incarnations. The Windo ws-based version of Adobe PageMaker, for example, is a drag-and-drop beauty like its groundbreaking Macintosh ancestor. QuarkXPress and Corel Ventura Publisher are strongest in the text-processing and graphics-handling features required for professional publishing. (Quark tilts toward magazines, while Ventura excels at book-length projects.) And Frame Technology's FrameMaker has the best tools and specialized typography for technical publishing.

At press time, Adobe Systems had completed its acquisition of Frame Technology. However, "specific product-name changes are yet to be determined and will be announced when they are introduced to the marketplace," according to Adobe.

Adobe PageMaker

PageMaker delivers the best pagemaker balance of usability, feature-richness, and overall quality, and it's NSTL's top choice . Much of its appeal to casual business users stems from its intuitive page-composition metaphor and screen interface. PageMak er's master-page method of repeating text and graphics acts like a set of left- and right-page over-lays on an overhead projector. Once you place text or graphics on the master page, the program repeats them on all the pages that use the master page.

PageMaker's helpful page-layout extensions automate repetitive procedures. Adobe distributes PageMaker with Extensis's PageTools, which adds such functions as a move-page command and a floating tool palette for quick screen-button access to PageMaker commands. Other bundled additions include a scripting language, a graphical archive management system, TWAIN scanner support, and tools for diagnosing various layout problems.

Like QuarkXPress, PageMaker offers superior tracking (a method of adjusting the spacing between resized characters that's similar to kerning). With tracking, the spacing is relative to the typeface size and style rather than absolute, as is the case with kerning.

PageMaker also has the best selection of file filter s, but all four programs were strong in this area. The features tables -- "Document Handling and Editing Features" and "Graphics Features" -- list many of the import file formats supported.

PageMaker's picture isn't all rosy, though. The program lacks vertical justification, so it won't automatically add or remove space to make columns align with the bottoms of pages. The running header/footer addition, which automates the creation of headers and footers, does not offer chapter-head variables. So, when adding or deleting pages, you have to rerun the header/footer addition -- a time-consuming process. PageMaker also lacks an automated backup-file feature, although it partially compensates by saving a file automatically each time a page is "turned."

Corel Ventura Publisher

Corel Ventura Publisher bundles more extensions than the other programs. The CD-ROM includes extensions for scientific-equation processing, database publ ishing tools, a paint/photo-enhancement program, additional foreign-language hyphenation dictionaries, 17,000 clip-art images, and a graphics management application.

Ventura Publisher's print quality in the newsletter test was the best in a strong group. Its ability to render both of the imported graphics in the newsletter test file set it apart from the other programs. Its solid display quality and book-print quality also bolstered its score.

With version 5.0, Corel Ventura Publisher has gone a long way toward improving its screen interface. Its floating "roll-up" tools allow quick access to program commands. Still, the program lacks the editable facing-page view found in every other program, although this was supposed to change in the next release, due out in January.

Like FrameMaker, Corel Ventura Publisher comes with everything you need to handle column formatting. In addition to the standard column-formatting features found in the other programs, FrameMaker and Corel Ventura Publishe r offer a full array of column-balancing and vertical-justification controls. Unfortunately, the two programs both apply tracking as an absolute value via a named style (in contrast to PageMaker's more intelligent method). Thus, when you apply an absolute value at the paragraph level and a larger font size at the character level, you must adjust the tracking value to maintain the same relative spacing held by the original, smaller font.

Corel Ventura Publisher is also the only program that doesn't fully support graphics rotation (it does so for imported, but not drawn, graphics). Nor does it allow the flipping of graphics, although the next version will. In addition, Corel Ventura Publisher does not allow you to save graphics or text files within its chapter files. We generally found its file management more difficult to learn and use than that of the other three programs.

On the plus side, Corel Ventura Publisher (along with FrameMaker and QuarkXPress) supports automatic file save and file back up. And its ability to render Windows Metafiles gives it a slight edge over both FrameMaker and PageMaker in newsletter print quality.

FrameMaker

As the only program that employs Win32, Microsoft's 32-bit OS extension, FrameMaker excelled in our speed tests. Its unparalleled speed, solid print quality, and breadth of features make it one of the most versatile programs (the other being Corel Ventura Publisher). It also has the most drawing tools, although its competitors are strong in this area, too.

Technical documentation has long been one of FrameMaker's target markets. The CD-ROM version of the reviewed upgrade includes 17 hyphenation dictionaries, 600 clip-art images, and a powerful scientific-equation and math-processing module. Frame Technology sells a separate Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) version of FrameMaker but also distributes a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) filter with the standard version. (See the sidebar "Desktop Publishing for Electronic Distribution" for more on electronic-publishing standards.)

During our usability testing, we found every program's style sheets except FrameMaker's to be easy to learn. FrameMaker's style sheets, called Properties, contain more formatting options than any other program does, and its dialog boxes aren't as intuitive as those of the other packages.

FrameMaker's screen environment has a number of drawbacks. Despite the program's use of a quick-access tool palette, some common tools are less accessible than they are in the other programs. For example, you must search through a cascading menu to find the command to establish text links (a feature called text flow ). Some of the program's dialog boxes were overloaded with information. These criticisms aside, FrameMaker remains a solid tool, especially for creating long documents quickly.

QuarkXPress

Popular in the magazine industry, QuarkXPress offers tools that are easy to learn and use for creating newslette rs and other design-intensive documents. However, it falls short in features for creating long documents, especially automatic indexing and table-of-contents creation.

QuarkXPress has long offered sophisticated typographic control. Graphic-design professionals find its power in kerning, tracking, point-size control, automatic ligature conversion, and incremental text rotation useful. Such features may be of little interest to the average business user, however.

Quark markets its product heavily to professional DTP service bureaus and therefore does not include templates with QuarkXPress, although it bundles a few page-layout extensions and a graphical archive management system. Third-party vendors produce most of the many XTension products, including some for SGML, HTML, and the sorely missed indexing/table-of-contents functions.

Like PageMaker, QuarkXPress maintains scalable tracking information at the font level, a superior method for preserving good spacing when type fonts are resized. It does not, however, allow parallel column formatting, which is used in formatting screenplays. Also, it's the only program that doesn't support printing to Adobe Acrobat format, an aspiring portable-document standard. Nevertheless, QuarkXPress's user interface is good, its file management is easy to comprehend, and its text-editing functions are easy to learn.

Ultimately, all four programs are robust, feature-rich, and mature. Only a few quibbles separate the "worst" from the best. But still on top is Adobe PageMaker, the program that started it all on the first Macintosh a decade ago.

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This report contains the partial results of a recent issue of Software Digest, a monthly publication of NSTL, Inc. To purchase a complete copy of the report, contact NSTL at 625 Ridge Pike, Conshohocken, PA 19428, (610) 941-9600; fax (610) 941-9950; on the Internet, editors@nstl.com. For a subscription, call (800) 257-9402. BYTE magazine and NSTL are both operating

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PRODUCT INFORMATION

Adobe PageMaker 5.0a............$895

Adobe Systems, Inc.
Seattle, WA
(206) 622-5500
fax: (206) 343-4240

http://www.adobe.com

Circle 1135 on Inquiry Card.

Corel Ventura Publisher 5.0.....$495  CD-ROM version
................................$595  Floppy disk version

Corel Corp.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
(800) 772-6735
fax: (613) 761-8056

http://www.corel.com

Circle 1136 on Inquiry Card.

FrameMaker 5.0..................$895

Frame Technology
San Jose, CA
(800) 843-7263
fax: (408) 975-6799

http://www.frame.com

Circle 1137 on Inquiry Card.

QuarkXPress 3.31................$895

Quark, Inc.
Denver, CO
(303) 894-8888
fax: (303) 343-2086

http://www.quark.com

Circle 1138 on Inquiry Card.

HotBYTEs
 - information on products covered or advertised in BYTE

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Document Handling and Editing Features

                                               
ADOBE    VENTURA

                                               PAGE-   PUBLISHER  FRAME- OUARK-
                                               MAKER              MAKER  XPRESS


STYLE SHEETS

 SGML-compliant                                  N         N        N       N
 HTML-compliant                                  N         N        Y       N
 Supports named paragraph styles                 Y         Y        Y       Y
 Supports named character styles                 N         N        Y       N
 Create named paragraph style by example         Y         Y        Y       Y
 Character-formatting controls                   Y         Y        Y       Y
 Line-spacing and alignment controls             Y         Y        Y       Y
 Paragraph-formatting controls                   Y         Y        Y       Y
 Page-break controls                             Y(1)      Y        Y(1)    N
 Column-break controls                           Y(1)      Y        Y(1)    N


PAGE COMPOSITION

 Provides layout-error d
iagnosis                 Y         N        N       N
 Precision placement and sizing of               Y         Y        Y       Y
  page elements via numeric values
 Supports text-block links                       Y         Y        Y       Y
  (i.e., flowing text between separate blocks)
 Multiple master pages per document              N         N        Y       Y
 Define page layout by sections                  N         Y        Y       Y


PAGE MANIPULATION

 Move page                                       Y         N        N       Y
 Insert/delete pages                             Y         Y        Y       Y
 Drag and drop pages in thumbnail view           Y         N        N       Y
 Insert and duplicate page contents              Y         N        N       N


BASIC TEXT EDITING

 Cut/paste using drag and drop                   N         N        N       Y
 Undo command                                    Y         Y        Y       Y
 Global and condit
ional search and replace       Y         Y        Y       Y
 Text-formatting attributes can be               Y         Y        Y       Y
  search/replace criteria
 Search and replace named styles                 Y         Y        Y       N
 Spelling checker                                Y         Y        Y       Y
 Table editor                                    Y         Y        Y       N
 Thesaurus                                       N         Y        Y       N


DOCUMENT FORMATTING

 Chapter management utility                      Y         Y        Y       N
 Allows leading adjustment                       Y         Y        Y       Y
 Widow/orphan control                            Y         Y        Y       Y
 Multiple-page text flow                         Y         Y        Y       Y
  (creates linked frames)
 Insert pages as text is imported                Y         Y        Y       Y
 Automatic hyphenation                           Y         Y        Y       Y

 Specify left/center/right justification         Y         Y        Y       Y
  of header/footer lines
 Headers/footers on even or odd pages only       Y         Y        Y       Y
 Line numbering                                  N         N        N       N
 Automatic numbered lists                        N         Y        Y       N
 Automatic chapter-number restart                N         Y        Y       N
 Automatic page-number restart                   N         Y        Y       Y
 Table of contents                               Y         Y        Y       N
 Generate contents from named                    Y         Y        Y       N
  paragraph styles
 Index from external file                        N         N        Y       N


WORD PROCESSING FILE FORMATS

 Reads/writes ASCII files                        Y         Y        Y       Y
 Reads/writes DCA/RFT files                      Y         N        Y       N
 Reads/writes RTF files                          Y         Y
        Y       Y
 Reads/writes WordPerfect files                  Y         Y        Y       Y
 Reads/writes Microsoft Word files               Y         Y        Y       Y
 Reads/writes WordStar files                     Y(2)      Y        N       N
 Reads/writes Word Pro files                     Y(2)      Y        N       Y
 Imports word processor style sheets             Y         Y        Y       Y


SPREADSHEET/DATABASE FILE FORMATS

 Delimited ASCII                                 Y         Y        Y       Y
 dBase II/III/IV                                 Y         N        N       N
 Lotus 1-2-3 WKS, WK1                            Y         Y        N       N
 Excel worksheet files                           Y         Y        N       N



KEY


Y(1)
 =  Can set break before but not after paragraph. 

Y(2)
 =  Imports only.

Y = yes
; 

N = no
; features not included with package are marked N.

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Graphics Features

                                         
ADOBE     VENTURA
                                         PAGE-    PUBLISHER   FRAME-   OUARK-
                                         MAKER                MAKER    XPRESS



COLOR

 Control image brightness                  Y          Y         Y        Y
 Control Image contrast                    Y          Y         N        Y
 Select screen pattern and angle           N          Y         Y        Y
 Adjust gray-scale information             Y          Y         Y        Y


DRAWING

 Polygons                                  N          Y         Y        Y
 Arcs                                      N          Y         Y        N
 Color fills                               Y          Y         Y        Y
 Shading/dithering                         Y          Y         Y        Y
 Free-form lines
                           N          Y         Y        N
 Bézier curves                             N          N         Y        N


GRAPHICS MANIPULATION

 Group/ungroup objects                     N          N         Y        Y
 Flow text around graphics                 Y          Y         Y        Y
 Text over graphics                        Y          Y         Y        Y
 Proportionally and nonproportionally      Y          Y         Y        Y
  scale graphics
 Rotate graphics                           Y          Y(1)      Y        Y
 Anchor graphics to text                   Y          Y         Y        Y


GRAPHICS FORMATS IMPORTED (PARTIAL LIST)

 Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)             Y(2)       Y         Y        Y(2)
 TIFF                                      Y          Y         Y        Y
 Gray-scale/color TIFF                     Y          Y         Y        Y
 GEM                                       Y          Y         Y        N
 Scitex CT bit map
                         N          Y         N        Y
 Windows Metafile                          Y          Y         Y        Y
 Windows BMP                               Y          Y         Y        Y
 GIF                                       Y          Y         Y        Y
 CGM                                       Y          Y         Y        Y
 Micrografx Charisma, Designer (DRW)       Y          N         Y        Y
 CorelDraw                                 N          Y         Y        N
 PC Paintbrush                             Y          Y         Y        Y
 AutoCAD DXF                               N          Y         Y        N
 Lotus 1-2-3 PIC                           Y          Y         N        N
 JPEG                                      N          Y         N        Y



KEY


Y(1)
 = Rotates imported but not drawn graphics. 

Y(2)
 = Also exports EPS files.

Y = yes
; 

N = no
; features not in
cluded with package are marked N.

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Desktop Publishers: How They Stack Up

NSTL 
RATING                        VERSION  PERFORMANCE QUALITY VERSATILITY

****  Adobe PageMaker         5.0a     G           G       G
****  Corel Ventura Publisher 5        F           G       G
****  FrameMaker              5.0      G           G       G
***   QuarkXPress             3.31     F           G       G


NSTL                                     EASE OF    EASE OF
RATING                        VERSION    LEARNING   USE      PRICE

****  Adobe PageMaker         5.0a       G          G        $895
****  Corel Ventura Publisher 5          G          G        $595+
****  FrameMaker              5.0        G          G        $895
***   QuarkXPress             3.31       G          G        $895



KEY

*****   Outstanding            G   Good
****    Excellent              F   Fair
***     Average
                U   Unacceptable
**      Below average
*       Poor


+ For floppy disk version; CD-ROM version, $495.

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Adobe Rises to the Top of the Crème de la Crème

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Adobe PageMaker is NSTL's pick from a closely bunched group of outstanding DTP programs. PageMaker still has the most intuitive page-layout metaphor (left). The Windows 3.1 version does not allow multiple master pages in a single project; however, FrameMaker, the new Windows 95 version of PageMaker (below), and QuarkXPress do.

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David Seachrist has tested software for NSTL for nine years. His specialties are DTP and gra phics.